Eric Cooney, new president and CEO of SAM

Tim Thorsteinson resigns as CEO, for personal reasons, after holding this position for two years and having piloted the merger of Snell and Quantel that gave rise to the new company.

The board of directors of Snell Advanced Media (SAM) has appointed Eric Cooney as its new president and CEO. At the same time, Tim Thorsteinson resigns as CEO, for personal reasons, after holding this position for two years and having piloted the merger of Snell and Quantel that gave rise to the new company.

Thorsteinson will continue to advise the Board of Directors as part of a succession plan. He will also remain a shareholder in SAM. Thorsteinson led SAM's turnaround based on a clear new product development strategy combined with strengthening the presence of sales teams in key markets.

Cooney has over twenty years of experience in the technology, media and telecommunications industries. Among the latest companies that have had the talent of this executive, Tandberg and Internap stand out, where he became CEO, transforming the strategy of both and boosting sales and customer service. In the case of Tandberg, he was in charge of leading its merger with the Ericsson group in 2007.

Cooney ha asegurado que “Snell Advanced Media ha visto un buen crecimiento en los últimos años, en lo que ha sido un mercado desafiante impactado por la naturaleza cambiante del consumo de media por parte de los usuarios finales. Esto es testimonio de su compromiso con la innovación y la integración, mientras que mantiene a sus clientes en primer línea. Después de demostrar la capacidad de adaptarse y evolucionar tanto orgánicamente como a través de la actividad de M&A, éste es un momento emocionante para unirme al equipo de cara a impulsar aún más la cuota de mercado y el crecimiento rentable dentro de la industria de producción de medios”.

Headquartered in Newbury, Berkshire, SAM employs almost 600 people in offices across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. With year-on-year growth of 20%, its shareholding is backed by LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group.

Chris Hurley, Portfolio Director at LDC, thanked Tim Thorsteinson for "his significant contribution to the success of Snell Advanced Media during his tenure as CEO. Eric will bring a wealth of industry experience across the group's key markets, as well as significant leadership experience in some of the most successful companies in the sector. He is ideally placed to lead the team and continue to build on the successes of the business to date."

Kevan Leggett, president of SAM, added: "Tim has done a fantastic job of first stabilizing the business and then designing and carrying out a strategy based on significant investment in new product development aligned to the improvement of the sales team which has led to significant sales growth at SAM. I have enjoyed working with him and am delighted that he remains involved. Eric has a proven track record of creating significant value and can leverage the platform that Tim has built to continue SAM's success in the next few years.”